SUSTAINING CAPITALISM - A series focused on nonpartisan reasoned solutions in the nation’s interest to the

Reforms to Correct Social Security’s Fiscal Imbalance Benefit adjustments The complexity of Social Security’s benefits calculation provides policymakers numerous options to address the program’s long-term deficit through a combination of adjust- ments, including to the ages of eligibility; the income brackets and payout factors that determine benefit amounts; and the inflation measures used to adj. [...] The amount of savings and the impact on beneficiaries from raising the FRA or other age parameters depend on both the revised age level and the length of the phase-in period. [...] Similar to the management of the majority of US 401(k) and pension plans, allowing Social Security investments to be diversified into marketable securities (e.g., equities and corporate bonds) has the ability to enhance the sustainability of overall Social Security revenues over time. [...] The other revenue-raising option, to expand covered taxable earnings to 90% of earned income (while not providing benefits up to the revised income level), also quickly contributes to lengthening the span of the trust fund, extending the depletion date to 2037. [...] The reform estimates below are measured in several ways: 1) the impact on the 10-year shortfall, 2) the change to the total 75-year long-range actuarial shortfall, and 3) the change in the annual shortfall in the 75th year.